1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated refrigerating apparatus wherein an evaporator and a condenser are integrated. The apparatus is suitable for use in a factory or an office.
2. Description of Related Art
An integrated refrigerating system is disclosed in Nippondenso Kokai Giho (Published Technical Report by Nippondenso) No. 22-097 on Apr. 20, 1981, wherein the refrigerating system includes a serpentine arrangement of a plurality of spine fin tubes, each of which has, on its outer surface, a plurality of spine fins formed as strips fixed to the outer surface. An evaporator as well as a condenser are constructed by such a serpentine arrangement of the spine fin tubes. In this case, the evaporator is arranged at the top, while the condenser is arranged at the bottom. Thus, water condensed at the evaporator at the top drops onto the condenser located at the bottom, so that the dropped water is vaporized by the condenser, thereby reducing the amount of water, which would otherwise be accumulated in a drain tank, and thereby reducing the amount of a manual work required for treatment of the drain water in the drain tank.
However, the inventors of this application have found that the serpentine arrangement of the spine fin tubes for constructing the evaporator and the condenser is defective in that the evaporation of water at the condenser is insufficient. Namely, according to a result of test on a serpentine arrangement of spine fin tubes in the prior art conducted by the inventors, drops of water generated on different spine fin tubes of the evaporator fall onto different spine fin tubes at the condenser, thereby reducing the time of residence of the water drops on the spine fin tubes at the condenser. Thus, effective evaporation of the droplets of the water cannot be obtained at the condenser.
The arrangement of an evaporator above a condenser is also shown in Japanese Examined Utility Model Publication No. 61-25530. In this prior art, both the evaporator and the condenser are constructed as plate fin types. As a result, a similar disadvantage is occurs in that droplets at an outer surface of the condenser from the evaporator may easily drop to a drain tank without being retained for a long time at the condenser. As a result, the effective use of the droplets to increase the condensing capacity cannot be obtained, despite the vertically spaced arrangement of the evaporator and the condenser.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 61-25530 also discloses a refrigerating device wherein an evaporator of a plate fin type is arranged above a condenser of a plate fin type so that the evaporator and the condenser are located in a vertical plane. In this prior art, water dropping from the evaporator can pass through the condenser. However, the plate fin type condenser is not suitable for keeping the water on the surface of the condenser for a long time. Thus, the water is relatively quickly moved to a drain pan arranged at the bottom. Thus, an increased condensing capacity cannot be obtained.